La Jolla homeowner injured by robber

A La Jolla homeowner suffered a minor shrapnel wound when a robber fired a gun after ransacking the victim’s multimillion-dollar oceanview hillside home on Wednesday night.

A San Diego police officer looks at the fur coats dropped by the robber in the street.

Susan Shroder / U-T San Diego

A San Diego police officer looks at the fur coats dropped by the robber in the street.

A San Diego police officer looks at the fur coats dropped by the robber in the street. (Susan Shroder / U-T San Diego)

The robber fired two rounds into the ground and a bit of shrapnel ricocheted, grazing the 76-year-old man’s temple, San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown said Thursday.

She said original police information that the robber fired a third round directly at the owner was incorrect. The man was treated at a hospital and released later in the night, Brown said.

Brown said it does not appear that the area, on Hillside Drive at the corner of Via Siena, is seeing a rash of burglaries, although one neighbor’s home was broken into last month.

The house robbed on Wednesday is listed for sale for $7.97 million. A real estate agent had just finished a showing about 6:15 p.m. when a man confronted her at the front door and ordered her to go back inside, said San Diego police Officer David Stafford.

He asked her where the jewelry was located and she said she did not know. The robber forced her to take him through the house while he looked through drawers, Brown said.

She said the robber took jewelry from a bedroom drawer and also took fur coats. He told the agent to stay inside as he left.

When the robber walked outside, he was confronted by the owner, who had just arrived home. The robber retrieved a rifle from his car and fired two rounds into the ground. He dropped the fur coats in the street and drove away in a black sports car, possibly a Porsche or a Ford Mustang.

Brown said the robber is white, possibly in his late 40s, 5 feet 8 inches to 5 feet 10 inches tall, 140 to 160 pounds, with blond hair.

Investigators do not believe the real estate agent was an accomplice in the crime, Brown said.